This is a book representing literary fairy tales of the Taisho era. Toyoshima Yoshio was a novelist and translator. It was Suzuki Miekichi, editor of Akai Tori [Red Bird], who suggested that Toyoshima write stories for children. Yume no Tamago is Toyoshima's first anthology of fourteen tales for children, which originally appeared in magazines such as Akai Tori.
As Toyoshima writes in the introduction that stories give a clear form to the feelings inspired by various events, the stories collected here are written in order to give an outline to his imaginative world. In "Otsukisama no Uta," ["The Song of the Moon"], Chigusahime, a fairy queen of the forest, tells a human prince that she is one of the spirits of the earth who created everything, but that human beings will be left alone if there will be no more space for them to live. Hearing this, the prince tries to restore nature.
The title piece "Yume no Tamago," "Tejinashi" ["A
Conjurer"], "Suisei no Hanashi" ["The Story of a Comet"]
as well as "Otsukisama no Uta" evoke a European atmosphere, or
rather, a stateless, unrealistic world. On the other hand, "Tengu
Warai" ["The Laughter of a Long-Nosed Goblin"] and "Kin
Shoki Shoki" ["The Sound of Washing Rice"] describe a local
and folktale-like world. "Tengu Warai" is a unique story in which
a long-nosed goblin's laughing face spreads out in the sky. "Kin Shoki
Shoki" is the story of a monkey and an old man in the mountains. "Tenkaichi
no Uma" ["The Supreme Horse"] is a story of a pack-horse
driver Jimbe'e, who becomes stateless when a devil's child appears.
Suzuki Jun's illustrations are very attractive. He illustrated many stories
carried in Akai Tori.
A reprint of the original was published by Holp Shuppan in 1969. |
